After 55 years of live performing, The Pretty Things – the iconic, 1st wave R&B / psychedelic cult heroes, formed by Ex-Rolling Stone Dick Taylor and singer Phil May – will retire from electric performances at the end of this year when they play one final show in London on December 18 with special friends including Van Morrison and Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour.
Unbelievably, Australia has lucked out and will be witness to some of the band’s final performances. And it may have taken them half a century, but The Pretty Things will be performing for the first time ever to Brisbane, Adelaide, Geelong and Perth audiences.
Sydney gets a show (supported by Pretty Things fans Tumbleweed), and there’s three Melbourne shows including a one-off performance of their landmark Abbey Rd. psych classic, S. F. Sorrow. Local legends – and massive Pretty Things fans – including Tumbleweed, Sand Pebbles and The Living Eyes are onboard to help us send them off.
The Pretty Things burst onto the UK music scene with their singles ‘Rosalyn’ and ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’. Claimed to be prettier than the Stones and grittier than The Who, the band racked up a huge history of musical and cultural “firsts”: the “longest hair in the world”, first ever rock and roll drugs bust, most arrests of any band, first ever rock-opera, arrested for discharging a sawn-off shotgun, first U.K. band to win Rolling Stone Record of the Year. With such outstanding classics as ‘L.S.D.’, ‘Midnight to Six Man’ and one of the wildest psychedelic singles ever released in ‘Defecting Grey’, The Pretty Things proved a huge influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie (who as a teen followed the band around religiously and later covered two of the band’s singles), The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Radio Birdman, Aerosmith, The White Stripes, The Saints, Iggy Pop, Kasabian, Hoodoo Gurus, and many, many more.
The influence of the band’s pioneering psychedelic work can be heard in the work of contemporary groups like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Thee Oh Sees.
THE PRETTY THINGS TOUR DATES
Sydney – Wednesday Oct 3 – The Factory – with Tumbleweed
Brisbane – Thursday Oct 4 – The Zoo – with The Golden Age Of Ballooning
Melbourne – Saturday Oct 6 – Thornbury Theatre (S. F. Sorrow) – with Sand Pebbles & The Electric Guitars
Melbourne – Sunday Oct 7 (afternoon) – The Caravan – with The Breadmakers
Geelong – Wednesday Oct 10 – Barwon Club – with The Living Eyes
Melbourne – Friday Oct 12 – The Tote – with The Living Eyes & Bananagun
Adelaide – Saturday Oct 13 – Fowlers – with Somnium
Perth – Sunday Oct 14 – The Charles Hotel
Special announcement – to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the album’s release, The Pretty Things will be performing their landmark Abbey Rd. psych classic, S. F. Sorrow on Saturday Oct 6th at the Thornbury Theatre, with special guests Sand Pebbles and The Electric Guitars. This is a one-off performance and should not be missed.